Are we boarding yet?
We had a 3:30PM flight out of LAX, heading to Chicago. If you have a baby, you may know what the “witching hour” is. This is the time in the day that some babies like to scream their lungs out, and there is nothing you can do about it. Baby Barbara is an amazing baby, but does have “witching hour” bouts sometimes in the evening. So yes, our flight fell right in that time period.
We arrived at the airport about 2 ½ hours early. For months, people with kids had been warning us about the first flight, so we were definitely a bit anxious. Skycap check-in was the way to go for this trip, and before we knew it, we were at the security point. Here, we were led immediately to a different check point which was full of families. This took all of the pressure off. I was convinced that we were going to be right in front of well traveled business men, groaning at each move our young family made. Instead, we were amongst other families, most of them less organized then us. I was groaning at each move they made. Just kidding.
Lucy held the baby, as I handled all of our bags, and we moved through security rather easily. So far so good. This has to get harder, right?
Two hours early we arrived at the gate. Our goal at this point was to keep the baby awake, so she sleeps as soon as we get on the plane. Babs immediately made some friends, and was staring at a little boy sitting next to us. I wanted to fight him for looking at my daughter.
It was boarding time before we knew it, and Babs was still in a good mood. So far so good. This has to get harder, right?
After finding our seats on the plane, we watched many other families board with their kids. Maybe I’ve never really looked for kids on a plane, but there seemed to be an abnormal amount of them here. I heard an older gentleman across the aisle mumble, “Oh man, there’s a lot of kids on this one.” This for sure was the guy that would be giving us dirty looks for the next four hours.
Babs fell asleep as soon as we sat down. The plane waited in the gate for a while, and during this time we came to realize that the Riles family was going to have an aisle to themselves. This was a huge break. And Babs was already asleep. So far so good. This has to get harder, right?
As the plane took off, we woke up the baby. Turns out you want a baby eating, while changing altitude, so her ears don’t pop. I have never in my life worried about somebody’s ears popping, until now. Babs drank like the Irish woman she is, and showed no signs of discomfort. So far so good. This has to get harder, right?
The plane reached the right altitude, and we were cruising. This was where Babs got a little bit fussy. Lucy just changed her position, calmed her down, and we were good. I was envisioning that we would be walking up and down the aisles with a screaming baby for the entire flight. This was not the case, and Babs was content. I was extremely content with my Bloody Mary. So far so good. This has to get harder, right?
Still three hours left on the flight, so something had to go horribly wrong, right? Then Babs and I BOTH fell asleep for roughly three hours, as Lucy stroked our hair and comforted us. Before we knew it, the plane was descending, and we arrived in Chicago.
Babs did cry a little bit at the end, and on our way out, the guy across the aisle from us said, “She did a great job on her first flight! You’ve got to take her again.”
Great job, baby girl, you have earned your wings. So far so good. This has to get harder, right?